Village Center

"Trains Villagers and is a drop site for all resources. Village Centers can be built anywhere on the map."
In-game description

The Village Center is an economic building in Age of Mythology: Retold. Like Town Centers, it can train workers and provide Age advancement and access to civilization and god-specific units and technologies. It is also a drop-off site for all resources, and can garrison workers for safety. Garrisoned Village Centers can fire arrows, starting at 6.3 with one garrisoned foot unit (villager, infantry, archer, or hero), and gaining +0.3 for subsequent units. Like Town Centers, they do not have a minimum range.

While it costs the same as a Town Center, it differs by being relatively weaker, producing workers 25% slower, not firing without a garrison, and not providing any population headroom, with the advantage of not being required to be built over Settlements.

To build a Village Center, players must select the Town Center from the builder's command panel and place it anywhere on the map. When not placed on a Settlement, it becomes a Village Center foundation. Visually, Village Centers can be easily distinguished from Town Centers due to them lacking a major god statue.

In the Archaic Age, if a player does not have a Town Center or Village Center, such as when the Nomad random map is played or the starting Town Center is lost, they can build exactly one Village Center or Town Center.

Gameplay

The Village Center allows for increased villager production without needing to claim another Settlement, but it is weaker, takes longer to build, produces workers more slowly, and does not automatically attack without a garrison, all while being as expensive as a Town Center.

In spite of these drawbacks, they can be a powerful tool to keep a strong economy going when map control is under threat, and can be a way to fortify resource gathering sites before Fortress-type buildings are available. In particular, it is a boon on island maps where there are islands rich in resources but lacking a Settlement.

Like the Town Center, Kronos players cannot Time Shift a Village Center.

Comparison with the Town Center

The Village Center functions and benefits just like the Town Center, except for the following cases.

Unlike the Town Center, the Village Center cannot research and does not benefit from Fortified Town Center.
The Village Center does not benefit from Horns of Consecration.
Caravans cannot trade with a Village Center.
Isis: Does not receive the extra population space.
Sekhmet: Citadel cannot be cast upon a Village Center.
Freyr: Gullinbursti cannot be cast upon a Village Center.

Appearance

Greek

Egyptian

Norse

Atlantean

History

"The Village Center represents the establishment of a new village for strategic or resource gathering purposes. Village Centers can train Villagers and can be built anywhere on the map, but do not provide most of the other benefits that Town Centers do. You can only build Village Centers starting in the Classical Age. The rise of agriculture provided a food surplus that had to be collected and stored to be available in winter months and other periods when food was scarce. The need to collect, store, and protect food surpluses gave rise to the first villages and towns as administrative centers. These quickly became central to many additional activities, including the gathering and storage of other resources, the manufacturing of goods, the housing of population, and trade with other residents or foreigners. All villages and towns had an administrative center that was the locus of governmental power and leadership. At first this might have been the local leader's home. Important supplies, especially food surpluses, were stored in such a place, but its destruction usually meant the loss of the town's governmental infrastructure. If this could not be restored, the town or village ceased to function."
In-game compendium

Trivia

In the pre-release stress test version of Retold, the Atlanteans could build Village Centers from the Archaic Age.